Survive
by Dongyrn
Summary: What happened before Emerald came to be under Cinder's sway?


**A/N:** Obviously this would make more sense if you were to watch Season 3 Chapter 7 first. It's not necessary, but would be helpful. Some **SPOILERS** regarding Emerald's semblance, so be forewarned.

 **TRIGGER WARNING** for implied **RAPE** and/or **ASSAULT**

 **Standard Disclaimer:** All rights belong to those whose rights they belong to, primarily the glorious minds at Rooster Teeth, though quite namely not me. Don't own a thing.

(We good now? Cool beans. Now that we got all _that_ out of the way…)

* * *

Mistral, Six Years Ago

Emerald Sustrai woke up in a cold sweat yet again. She automatically muffled her screams, her eyes wide and panicked as she scanned the interior of the warehouse she'd chosen for that night's haven.

As the twelve-year-old girl desperately attempted to stifle her trembling, she grasped at the reality of her current situation like a drowning person would a liferaft.

 _I'm alone, there's nobody here, nobody's touching me or… no, no don't think about it, he can't hurt me anymore… I'm alone, I'm safe…_

After several minutes she felt more under control, the lingering night terrors fading back into the recesses of her mind. She knew they'd stay there, lurking about until ready to disturb yet another night's sleep sometime soon. It was as inevitable as the gnawing hunger in her painfully thin belly.

Emerald brought her hand down finally and let out a soft, relieved sigh. Sitting up, she wiped the tears from her face with a dirty sleeve and peered around from her perch up on a rusty rafter. The warehouse, holding some sort of textile goods from what she could gather, was still deserted at this early hour, but seeing as how any further attempt at sleep would be futile the young girl decided to get up and about.

 _Early bird catches the easy mark._

She checked the pockets of her ratty clothes, grey and hanging loose on her slender frame, to ensure her meager possessions were still there. With a satisfied nod she slid off and landed in a nimble crouch on the warehouse floor. Making her way towards the window she'd jimmied the previous evening, the green-haired girl noted that the sky was just beginning to lighten.

 _Another day on the streets. Let's see if I can scare up some breakfast…_

The crowds were fairly sparse in the industrial district of Mistral so early in the morning, but she did manage to bump into a cluster of commuting dockworkers on foot. Careful to only target one of the group, she grinned to herself as she rounded the next corner.

 _Jackpot, almost twenty lien in his wallet! That'll get me breakfast AND lunch! Maybe today will be a good day for a change…_

Emerald made a beeline out of the neighborhood, careful to avoid being spotted as she distanced herself from the site of her pickpocketing. After a good fifteen minutes she ventured into a diner that had been open all night. The place was sparsely populated, mostly working-class but a few students who attended some of the lesser academies.

Three boys in particular eyed the diminutive girl as she slid into an unoccupied booth. She tried to ignore them, but felt their stares on the back of her head. With an irritated sigh, she shot them a glare over her shoulder, causing them to turn around again with derisive snickers.

"Hey there, what can I get for you?" the waitress asked tiredly as she sauntered over. She was a matronly-looking woman, broad-shouldered and with short white hair, but had a weathered face that spoke of many hours at this job.

Emerald cleared her perpetually dry throat. "Orange juice, please, and waffles."

The waitress had been looking over the generally decrepit state of the waifish girl, and gave a small sigh. "Honey, don't take this personally, but I gotta ask. You got the lien?"

She nodded, not insulted in the slightest, and gave her a quick flash of her newly-acquired wallet. With a satisfied nod the waitress was off again to fill her order.

Emerald fidgeted with her silverware as she waited, glancing around at the other patrons and automatically assessing them for either danger or gullibility. The three boys she'd noted earlier were still fairly high on her list of threats, but just when she was becoming seriously uncomfortable they paid for their meal and left.

She paid them no further mind as her food and drink arrived, diving in with abandon. Her shoulder-length mint-green hair hung forward, curtaining her face and hiding it from view, though she remained hyper-aware of those customers still inside the diner.

Once finished with her food, she left lien with just enough tip to not arouse undue attention before heading back outside again.

 _Well, what to do with the rest of the day. Could try begging outside the library or the church, though neither would be particularly productive this time of day… Uh-oh._

Her head snapped up as her aura kicked in, alerting her to the impending danger. She'd been lucky enough to develop her aura early on, as it helped her in escaping her former life, but she still didn't have any idea what her semblance might be. Still, what she had was enough to keep her out of trouble, for the most part.

Unfortunately, today it was too little, too late.

The three boys from earlier were circling in, cutting off any hope of escape. Each was dressed in a modestly well-to-do fashion, which unfortunately ruled out a simple robbery.

The alternative made the blood in her veins turn to ice.

 _No, no, no… never again, I will never let one of them touch me again…_

"Here, chicky, chicky, chicky…" one of them taunted as they closed in tighter. She inched backwards, looking around desperately with wild eyes. A street urchin like herself was barely worth any notice in this town. Her cries for help would likely go unanswered, and at best would anger her opponents into doing something rash to shut her up.

Emerald began to slowly back up and into an alleyway adjacent to the diner, trying to gain some space and time to figure out a plan. Her escape route quickly turned into a trap, though, as it was a dead end.

She snarled, pulling out the small tarnished knife that was her only means of defense as the light from the street darkened, blocked out by the shadows of the advancing boys. She'd rather tear her own throat out than submit to the gang.

But then a light and musical voice sounded from the entrance of the alleyway.

"Now, boys, is that any way to treat a nice girl like that?"

The tallest of the three turned with a laugh. "And just who do… you… think…" He trailed off inaudibly, his hands slack at his sides as he stared at an approaching figure, his two friends in a similar stupor.

It was definitely the figure of a female, wearing a long dress with long sleeves, but she otherwise seemed unarmed. As she approached, the dim light of the alleyway revealed a pleasant, round face with piercing blue eyes framed by a shock of bright pink hair. She looked to be a couple of years older than her, though her face was particularly world-weary as if she'd seen it all and wasn't likely to be impressed by much of anything any longer.

She was the most magnificent person Emerald had ever set eyes upon.

"Well then, why don't you nice boys just run along, as a favor to me, okay?" she practically purred, her eyes never leaving Emerald's.

"Um, yeah, sure, we can do that, right guys?" The other two nodded to their taller leader in agreement, and they all stumbled off somewhat drunkenly.

After they left the alleyway, the strange girl quickly closed with Emerald, pausing just outside of reach.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she murmured. "But we have to go. That's going to wear off soon. Will you come with me?"

She held her hand out towards the green-haired girl imploringly. Emerald looked down at the hand, seemingly the same size as hers even though the stranger was several inches taller. The early morning light illuminated a simple gold band encircling her middle finger, sparkling off of the faceted surface.

Unsure of her actions and uncharacteristically throwing caution to the wind, Emerald grasped the stranger's hand with her own. The pair took off, jogging out of the alley and turning to go in the opposite direction that the boys had taken in their departure.

"How did you do that?" Emerald gasped after they had gone several blocks. "How did you make them do what you wanted them to?"

The pink-haired girl giggled, the sound like the twinkling of wind chimes. "Oh, that's my semblance," she explained. "I can make men like me, or rather, trust me, even if they had no intention of doing so. It's come in handy, as you can imagine."

"Wow," Emerald breathed. They had slowed to a walk, though the older girl had not yet released her hand. "So just men? You can make them do what you want?"

"Well, it has limitations," the strange girl shrugged. "If they're on to me, or overly suspicious, it won't work. But that's what these are for." With a flourish of her left hand, the one not still holding on to Emerald's, she dropped a long, thin knife out from her sleeve, twirling it in her nimble fingers. It disappeared again just as easily.

"Wow," she murmured again. "That is so cool…"

"So my name's Coral. Coral Lleidr, con artist extraordinaire." The pink-haired girl made a brief half-curtsy.

"I'm Emerald. Um, Emerald Sustrai. Common street rat and pickpocket, at your service." She gave a little giggle as she attempted to mimic Coral's curtsy without losing her grasp on her hand.

"What a pretty name," the older girl murmured. "And there's nothing common about you, I can tell. Would you like to be my friend, Emerald?"

She looked up at Coral, her pale red eyes shimmering with emotion. "I'd like that more than anything," she whispered.

Mistral, One Year Ago

Emerald woke up with a wide yawn and stretched languidly with her arms over her head, glancing around the small room as she did so. The single-room apartment was just a step above a hovel, but it was home. Small improvements had been made in the past year since she'd started living there, a few colorful flowers here and there, an old painting that had been thrown out when a hotel downtown remodeled. It was cozy.

From behind her, a slender arm snaked across her naked torso to snuggle her back in.

"You're not allowed to get up yet," Coral murmured sleepily.

Emerald giggled softly, turning her face to plant a gentle kiss on her lover's cheek. "And why ever not?"

"'Cause I wanna sleep more. And that means you gotta stay here and keep me warm."

"While that sounds like a lovely idea, don't we have plans for later today?"

Coral let out a heavy sigh. "Work, work, work… How can you think of such things when you have your gorgeous and naked girlfriend in bed with you?"

"And so modest, too," Emerald snickered, her mouth trailing down Coral's long elegant neck to nibble on her collarbone. "But if you want a shower in the common bathroom, we gotta get to it now before the rest of the floor wakes up."

In a sudden move, Coral turned, flipping Emerald onto her back with a startled _squawk_. She leaned over her, bright blue eyes intense as her chest lightly brushed up against the younger girl's.

"Do you want to know what I think of a shower right now?" she asked, her voice heavy with desire.

"Well," Emerald breathed. "Why don't you tell me…"

Needless to say, there were no showers for either of them that morning. Or breakfast, for that matter.

It was midmorning before the pair strolled out of the public housing project in the small suburb of Levante, just outside of the town of Mistral itself. They used it as their base of operations, moving from town to town, neighborhood to neighborhood of the wealthier districts. Always on the move, always looking for the next mark, the next con, though eventually returning to the small alcove they called home.

Emerald had never been happier in all her life.

The seventeen-year-old girl had recently filled out a bit and liked to dress the part. She wore her now-long hair back in a pair of tails behind her back, and an olive green halter top with matching leggings. A set of protective brown leather chaps completed the outfit, along with sensible brown shoes and a pair of knives at the small of her back, as the bodyguard to her lover's persona.

Coral, now nineteen, worked as the primary focus of the con. Her usual outfit consisted of a long-sleeved low-cut faded blue dress that had seen slightly better days, all part of a carefully crafted illusion of a down-on-her-luck former noblewoman. Like Emerald, she carried a pair of knives, though she kept those stilettos tucked up her sleeves still.

The green-haired girl tugged on her new white half-gloves that Coral had bought for her. "These are really badass," she commented with a grin.

"Hmmm, they do make you look dangerous," Coral smirked, her heels making a clacking sound as she strode at her girlfriend's side. "You ready to back me up, Emmy?"

"Always, love," Emerald murmured, pulling Coral in for a quick but intense kiss. "You watch that cute butt of yours," she whispered against her lips.

"You're the only one who gets to watch it," the pink-haired girl giggled, giving her a sultry wink as she sauntered into the tavern. Emerald did just that, observing her leave with avid focus.

 _Dust, she is so beautiful…_

Emerald paced around the square outside the tavern, counting silently in her head while keeping an ear out for any number of prearranged signals. This should be an easy score, the merchant one who travelled through often but seemed to be fairly gullible, but she would show up towards the middle of the negotiation to lend a little more credence to the tale. A quick sob story, with the promise of future aid from a very grateful lady, and they'd be just a little bit richer. It was never a large amount, just enough to keep them in their lifestyle while not becoming too great a nuisance or attract the wrong sort of attention.

"Emerald Sustrai!" a sharp voice called out from across the square.

She sighed to herself resignedly. _Yeah, attention like that._

Emerald slowly swiveled her head with as open and beguiling an expression on her face as possible. She knew that if she was being called out by name, then there was no point in denying the fact. Now was the time to use her considerable charm and charisma to talk her way out of whatever this was and then get inside to support her girlfriend.

What she saw made her mouth go dry.

 _Oh, Oum, it's a hunter… What on Remnant did I do to earn_ that _sort of attention?_

The slender man with dark green hair definitely held himself with the confidence of a hunter, though he seemed young enough that he might have just recently graduated, whether from Haven or another of the academies throughout the four kingdoms. He held a pair of deadly-looking brown-handled guns, one in each hand and pointed right at her midsection. She eyed them with a curious sort of detachment, noting that they seemed to have blades that folded back from the underside of the barrel.

Emerald cleared her throat. "Yes, can I help you?" she called out loudly. "I'm in a bit of a hurry, my mother's expecting me…" She hoped Coral was able to hear the codeword and escape through the back of the tavern quickly.

"Not likely," the rail-thin man grated out. "You are wanted for the murder of the local constable. Stand down and disarm or I will use lethal force."

Emerald blinked her eyes uncertainly. _Did he just…_ "I assure you, there's been some sort of misunderstanding," she stated nervously, keeping her arms to her sides. "I'm no murderer."

"According to Matteson Sable you are," he stated authoritatively. "I've been provided irrefutable evidence. Now, stand down!"

She froze, her mind reeling from the shock as she tried to gather her wits back around her again. _Matteson Sable… that's who Coral is meeting right now! Dammit, we've been set up!_

 _Coral!_

Gritting her teeth determinedly, she focused her aura and activated her semblance.

A year ago the two of them discovered her talent of illusion. More specifically, she was able to induce a specific hallucination into the mind of an individual, two if she pushed herself and risked a throbbing headache. She could get that person to believe anything she wanted them to, so long as she was careful not to dispel it by disturbing anything else in the environment. Coral was ecstatic when they discovered it, feeling as if it were providence that brought the two of them together with semblances that were only useful in dealing with other sentients.

In this case, Emerald pushed all of her fear for her girlfriend into her efforts, causing the hunter to believe that she was meekly kneeling down onto the ground with her hands clasped over her head, while in actuality she was edging around the square and towards a small pile of short two-by-fours.

"Alright," the hunter said, walking forward calmly. "Glad to see you're being…"

He stopped then, his head cocked to the side as if he suspected something was amiss. Emerald didn't give him the chance to react, though, as she snatched up a board and swung it with all of her might, slamming it up against the side of his head. He collapsed like a sack of flour.

Desperate, Emerald dropped the board and raced through the front doors of the tavern. The first thing she noticed was that it was deserted, no patrons or servers or anyone.

The next thing she noticed was the hem of a blue dress poking out from behind a table.

"No, no, no…" she moaned, rushing forward. She dropped to her knees and turned her girlfriend over. "Coral-"

Her words cut off with a sob as Coral's head flopped inelegantly to the side on the slender neck that she'd spent so much time nuzzling. She didn't need to be a medical tech to know that the pink-haired girl's neck was broken, but felt for a pulse anyway. Emerald drew in a shuddering breath when she found none.

"Nooo…" she moaned in a keening wail, gathering her dead lover into her arms. She rocked the limp body back and forth, her own small frame wracked with desperate sobs.

 _Coral… What am I going to do? I can't do this without you, I can't be alone anymore… I don't know how to be alone anymore..._

After a few minutes her crying subsided, leaving her feeling drained and empty. She eased Coral's body back to the floor and slipped her delicate but rapidly cooling hand into her own.

"I'll make him pay, my love," she whispered despondently. "I swear it…"

It was then she noticed the absence of the ring from Coral's finger. Her grandmother's ring, and her most treasured possession.

Something within Emerald snapped.

She rose to her feet, flipping the tails of her mint-green hair behind her shoulder again and scrubbing her face off before stalking towards the front door of the tavern.

Outside on the street, the hunter was on his hands and knees, trying to shake off his injury. His aura flared as he willed the throbbing headache away. Several passerbys were clustered around, though none really offered to help. The crowd scattered suddenly, and the hunter found himself staring down at a pair of brown flat shoes in the dusty street.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in, you impertinent little street rat?" he growled, groping to the side for one of his weapons. "When I-"

He was cut off when one of the feet whipped forward, smashing into his face and sprawling him onto his back. He lay there stunned by the unexpected attack, but then winced as the same foot was firmly planted on his chest.

The hunter found himself staring down the barrel of one of his own guns. He looked past it to see a pair of pale red eyes glittering dangerously.

"Where. Is. He." Emerald gritted each word out, cognizant of the need to keep her rising temper under control.

"Where… Who?"

"Matteson Sable. Where can I find him?"

"He… Why do you need to…?" He yelped as the girl pressed the barrel of the gun against his sweating forehead, causing him to go cross-eyed.

"Last chance," Emerald whispered, her voice promising death.

"Okay, he… he's in the Market District in Mistral! Small home, white… Um, one-hundred-eight Corsica Street!"

The slender girl leaned in, pressing the barrel tighter against his head. "Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes, yes! I'm sure!"

Emerald nodded in satisfaction before she pulled the trigger, leaving the hunter's head a bloody, smoking mess.

She stood up and spat on the corpse. " _Now_ I'm a murderer," she growled in satisfaction.

Glancing around the plaza, Emerald gathered up the other of the hunter's weapons and then carefully removed his gun belt and wallet. Fortunately the belt cinched around her waist, after she removed her knives, if she used the tightest setting. She tucked both guns into the holsters now at the small of her back and began to stride determinedly out of the small town of Levante, not looking back on what had been a home for her, a refuge and sanctuary, filled with memories of a happier time. She set her feet on the path leading into the main city of Mistral.

As she walked she examined her new weapons. On the belt were a few pouches, one of which contained extra dust ammunition, so she paused off to the side and practiced shooting. It was the first time she'd ever held a gun before, but somehow they just seemed to fill her hands naturally.

After she was satisfied with her marksmanship, she continued on her journey and worked with the mechanism that transformed her guns into bladed sickles. Emerald played with them for a bit, swinging them about and getting used to the action.

Quite by accident she triggered the third function of her new weaponry as one of the blades flew out at the end of a long chain.

"Okay, now _that_ is cool," she murmured to herself. She paused as the errant thought crossed her mind, how much Coral would have enjoyed them as well.

 _Not now, I can't think of her now. Mourn later. Vengeance first._

She reeled the kusarigama in and practiced some more, targeting branches on the side of the road or fence posts as she came upon them. The slender girl was fairly satisfied with her efforts, hitting her target on perhaps half of her attempts, by the time she reached Mistral.

By late afternoon she was perched up on a rooftop across the street from her target, crouched in the shadows of a dormer window as she scoped out the modest house. The curtains were drawn, but she could adequately determine the layout from where she observed.

Finally, just after the dinner hour, her patience was rewarded. A stocky man with close-cropped black hair and a matching neatly-trimmed beard stepped off of a taxi that pulled up. He was dressed smartly in a fashionable suit, and Emerald eyed him as he walked to his front door.

"Hello, Matteson," she murmured darkly. "Did you enjoy your last meal?"

Emerald waited further, tracking his movements throughout the house as he traversed it, finally coming to rest in what she assumed to be his bedroom.

And then she settled in, watching the progress of the broken moon in the sky.

Three hours later she finally slipped off of the roof and darted across the darkened street before hopping up on the target house's window sill. Nimble as a monkey Faunus, she scaled the side of the house and pulled herself up to the window outside of the bedroom. With a few quiet, deft movements, she jimmied the window open and slipped inside.

He was lying on his back, snoring and surrounded by luxurious bedding. She paid no mind to the furnishings or other minutiae, concentrating on the man before her as she stealthily crept forward. Emerald slowly pulled one of her new weapons out and then jumped up to land with her knees squarely on the slumbering man's chest.

He let out a whoosh of air as he was startled awake, but before he could suck in another breath to yell or demand answers, she had a blade pressed against his throat.

"Mister Sable," she purred with a voice that reeked of anticipatory violence.

"Oh, Oum," he squeaked.

"Recognize me?"

Matteson nodded fractionally, his eyes wild and darting about.

"Why did you do it?" She pulled the blade back just far enough to allow his to speak, but kept it touching the skin of his throat. "Why did you have to kill her?"

"You two were conning me!" he protested. "I used to be a con man myself, it's how I made my fortune! You can't con a con man!"

"What about a murderer? What should I do with one of those, hmm?"

He started to stammer out a reply, but she didn't allow him to finish.

"Where's the ring?" she asked in a deadly whisper. "What did you do with the ring you took off of Coral?" Her arm was trembling by this point, eager to bury her blade into the cretin's throat, but she had to know first.

"I.. I sold it," he croaked. "Jewelry shop downtown, corner of Languedoc and Provence. Look, we can come to some sort of understanding, right? What do you want?"

"What do I want?" Emerald whispered incredulously. "What do I want?" Her voice rose as she repeated herself, and she pressed the blade closer into his neck.

"I want my Coral back, you son of a bitch!"

With that she whipped her hand to the side, tearing a bloody wound through his throat. She hopped back nimbly to avoid the visceral spray. As she listened to his final wheezing gasps and desperate thrashing, she stared at her weapon and watched the drops of blood as they fell, splattering against the hardwood floor.

After he'd been silent for a good minute she walked forward, cleaning her blade off on his nightshirt dispassionately. She slipped back out the window without a backwards glance.

Emerald wandered the streets of Mistral aimlessly, reflecting her current state of mind. Her vengeance didn't seem to fill the hopeless void now within her. All she was left with was the burning desire to retrieve the ring, her Coral's treasured possession. If she had that in hand, perhaps her life could have meaning again.

It was doubtful, but it was all she had to go on at the moment.

When the sun rose, Emerald found herself walking down Provence Street. Shops nearby were beginning to open, including several cafes. She ignored them as much as she ignored the growling in her belly. _Priorities first._

The bell to the jewelry shop tinkled as she entered. It was larger inside than it appeared to be from the street, with several counters and salespeople. There were a handful of customers inside, one raven-haired woman in a red dress and another couple, both brunette and dressed in an elegant though understated manner. All were being helped by store employees already.

Emerald plastered a smile on her face and approached a middle-aged man behind the counter.

"Yes?" he asked in a pleasantly-accented voice. "May I help you, miss?"

"I'm looking for a particular ring," she said, keeping her voice low and modulated. "Gold band, faceted. I believe someone sold it to you yesterday."

"Oh, yes indeed! I was the one who received it, a simple yet lovely specimen. Here, I have it right in this case…"

She watched eagerly as he slid aside the back of one of the display cases and removed a gold ring. It was polished brightly, but it was undoubtedly Coral's. She would recognize it anywhere.

"May I see it?" she whispered.

"Of course," he smiled. "A beautiful ring for a beautiful woman… Did this belong to someone you know?"

"My girlfriend," she replied absently. "How much?"

"Six hundred lien."

"Very well, I shall return when I have the money." She concentrated, pushing into the man's mind the belief that she'd just handed the ring back to him. He smiled again, pulling his hand back and pantomiming the securing of the phantom ring.

Before he could reply further, she turned and slipped the ring into her pocket, striding surely yet as unobtrusively as possible towards the exit. Behind her, she overheard a female employee questioning the man.

 _Damn, could you not have waited ten more steps?_

"But I just put the ring away, right here," she heard him protest.

"I'm sorry?" she replied. "I don't see it…"

As she slipped out the door, she could hear his incredulous voice. "What? Impossible! Where did it…?"

Emerald darted down the street and behind the chalkboard sign of a cafe, crouching as if she were tying her shoe. More voices clamored as employees poured out of the jewelry shop.

"She went that way!" a male voice called out.

The earlier female employee spoke up next. "Someone call the police!"

Two of the male employees strode by where she was concealed. She didn't even need to give them a nudge with her semblance as they hurried by.

"How did she do that?" one of them asked wonderingly

Peeking over the edge of the sign, she could see no further employees, though the woman in the red dress was standing out front and looking the other way. Deciding to risk it, Emerald darted out again and sped around the next corner.

It was a dead-end alleyway.

"Damn," she muttered, searching about. Perhaps there was a doorway she could break into, or another window to jimmy open...

"How did you do that?" a sultry, musical voice spoke up from the entrance of the alley.

Emerald spun to confront the raven-haired woman. Little did she know it at the time, but from that point on her destiny would be intricately tied with her.

It didn't really take much for Cinder to convince the slender girl to join with her. Faced with the sudden opportunity of purpose, of not being alone, what else could she do, really?

Cinder approached her in the alleyway, the older woman's heels clacking on the pavement, and she rested her hand on Emerald's shoulder. "Follow me, and you'll never be hungry again."

Thoughts of her slain girlfriend flitted through her mind, but the teen girl gathered up the shattered fragments of her heart and unhesitatingly placed them into the hands of this exotic but deadly-seeming woman.

"Thank you…" Emerald whispered gratefully.

* * *

 **A/N:** So, obviously unrelated to my ongoing series of fluffy _Lemonade_ stories. I've always liked Emerald's character, though, and that was one of the highlights for me in Ch 7. Made me wonder, just what was it that brought her to that point where she met Cinder? Ultimately I decided that above all, Emerald is a survivor. She's obviously been through a lot by this point to make her so jaded, and I also noted how easily she rebuffs Mercury's advances yet clings to Cinder for approval. Hopefully we've gotten all the background on her we're gonna get, so that this tale will stand the test of time. Otherwise, I'll look like a fool. Eh, if it happens it happens, I'm used to it.

Anybody catch the Princess Bride reference? Sorry, couldn't help myself, I'm a geek like that...

Many thanks for reading, if you enjoyed it take a gander at my other standalones like _Retired_ , or my previously-mentioned fluffier story arc starting with _Pink Lemonade_. In any case, drop me a review and let me know what you thought, please!

Stay shiny!


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